2007 Taz Santa Barbara Pinot Noir – $13

This California Central Coast Pinot is sourced from two vineyards in Santa Barbara County. Grapes from the North Canyon Vineyard in the Santa Maria Valley that are soft and delicate are added to grapes from the Fiddlestix Vineyard in the Santa Rita Hills that are big and bold. Two different sides of Central Coast Pinot blended into one bottle. 1/4th of the juice saw French oak barrels the rest was aged to neutral oak, so a bit of oak for flavor but not much for aging, a drink it now wine.

The color is a rich deep see thru purple. It has that funky Pinot nose, mushroom, forest floor and then strawberries and spice. Medium mouth feel, not lush, but not watery. The taste is cherries and chocolate covered strawberries, but not sweet, there is a good deal of acidity. You can really feel the acidity on your tongue and the back of your mouth. A nice blueberry and cherry juice finish.
A $13 complicated, interesting and tasty Pinot, be still my heart.

NV Brownstone Pinot Noir – $10

People say that you can’t find a good Pinot Noir at an inexpensive price. Well, we have news for them. We have discovered a yummy Pinot Noir for $9.99. Full of earth and juicy grape flavors, this wine is wonderful by itself, but is structured enough to go with most white fish. It is an earthy juice bomb and I have had Pinots at twice the price that are not this good.

find it at http://www.dobbysliquors.com/

2006 Oakwood Hollow Napa Pinot Noir – $14

I thought I was done with the end of the bin series, but I found one more. In Chicago,there used to be two large liquor stores, Sam’s and Binny’s. Binny’s bought Sam’s and all the Sam’s specific Wines are now on cut out. This Napa Valley Pinot is made by the same people who made the ne-go-ciant Syrah, it is comprised from 6 barrels purchased from some unknown Napa vineyard. It once retailed for $28, but Sam’s is gone, it is now an orphan and sells for $14, I don’t expect you to find this exact same wine, but equal deals are available out there, you just have to explore and find them.

Ok, Oakwood Hollow is a fake name and it sounds way too much like the place Winnie the Pooh lived, but a $28 Pinot made from Napa fruit is very likely to be better than a $14 Pinot sourced from vineyards all over California. The color is see thru ruby red. The nose has whiffs of alcohol but also chocolate covered cherries and mint. The taste is sour cherries at first then dark fruit, cranberries and vanilla, the tannins are light, but you can sense the oak on the back of your palate. A long somewhat nondescript finish, a little too sour to be delicious. A tasty wine but with the sour cherries and cranberries it is very tart . This is definitely a food wine and not an afternoon sipper.

2006 Gypsy Dancer Oregon Pinot Noir – $16

Ok, so this isn’t really a $16 Pinot, it normally sells for anywhere from $40 to $60, but again I found an end of the bin special. I was not familiar with Gypsy Dancer Pinot but how can you turn down this kind of deal. The grapes are sourced from the A & G Estate Vineyards in the Dundee Hills region of Oregon. In checking the web for information on this Pinot, I found that the Winemaker, Gary Andrus passed away Jan. 30, 2009 and this is the last vintage ever to be produced. So, that’s the reason the wine was in the cut-out bin. This is a very small volume, (480 cases produced), unfiltered wine.

The color is a dense, but see thru deep red, with brown overtones. The nose is the classic Pinot Noir aroma, mushrooms, crumples leaves, a little bit of flowers and a hint of mint, nothing else smells like a good Pinot. The flavor is delicate, not overpowering but somehow huge at the same time.  Your mouth is filled with flavor, but none of the flavors overpower, just an explosion of subtle blended tastes. There are black and blueberries in there, also some Junior Mints, this is a very balanced delicate yet full. There isn’t really a finish, it is more like the initial flavors refuse to give up, it lasts a long time. The Gypsy Dancer is more fruit forward and less earthy than some Pinots, but is is beautifully balanced and wonderfully subtle.

I spilled some of the wine for a fallen Homey, it looks like I’m a fan of Gary Andrus’s wines a little too late, he made a really good wine. The Gypsy Dancer is well worth searching out if you can find it, it was a $60 wine before he passed and now is $40 and if your lucky much much less.

Owen Roe Sharecropper’s Pinot Noir – $19

Owen Roe is not the name of the Winemaker, Owen is sort of the Irish equivalent to William Wallace. The Winemaker David O’Reilly who along with Jerry Owen make a line of terrific wines from the Pacific Northwest. They’re wines are always top quality and even on years when the weather does not cooperate they come up with interesting wines. This Pinot is sourced from a few different vineyards in the Northern Willamette Valley of Oregon, aged 9 months in French oak, alcohol content 13.75% and a fairly small volume of 4,500 cases produced.

The nose has a lot to offer, jammy fruit, vanilla, a whiff of brewing coffee, and a little bit of musty mushroom aroma. The mouth feel is a bit oaky, a  dry feeling in the back of the mouth, this is a young Pinot, it’s fine to drink now, but a year or two of bottle age will tame the oak. The color is a glassy crimson, very pretty. There is abundant spice and pepper, it comes in layers and is not overwhelming, the fruit is dark and dry, not sweet, with some thin no fizz cola flavor. That may not sound like a good combination on paper, but on your palate it works just fine. A very multidimensional wine, what you taste in the first sip of your glass will change by the last sip of your glass, lot’s of fun to drink.

Not the “Holy Grail” under $20 Pinot ( you need to catch a sale to get the Sharecropper for under $2o), But a rock solid, attention grabbing Pinot.

Segura Viudas ARIA Pinot Noir Brut Cava -$10

The Aria Pinot Noir Brut is a Spanish Cava, this particular one is a sparkling wine made in the French style, using a traditional French grape varietal . The Aria is actually a Rose’, though it does not say so on the bottle, it has a soft pink color, which indicates that the grape skins where left in the juice for a little while when they crushed the grapes.

Wine Fact #1:If it was a white sparkling wine from the Champagne region of France, it would be a Blanc de Noir (white from black, meaning white bubbly from black or red grapes , in this case Pinot Noir). The term Blanc de Blancs means (white from white, usually meaning white bubbly made from Chardonnay).

Wine Fact #2:The Aria’s second fermentation (the process that gives it the bubbles) is in the bottle. A little bit of yeast is put into each bottle and for the next 18 months the bottles are regularly turned slightly to keep the spent yeast from sticking to the side of the bottles and yucking things up, as they say in France.

Wine Fact #3:The term Brut is used to indicate sweetness or dryness, with Brut wines having less sugar and Sec wines containing more sugar.

It has a light delicate nose, a bit of baked bread from the yeast, a touch of strawberry jam. The bubbles dissipate quickly, almost too quickly.  The flavors are muted, it tastes of tart cherries, watermelon hard candy and a bit of a mineral edge. It is a dry wine, not too sweet, some of the value priced sparklers can get cloyingly sweet, but not this one. I like the Aria, for the price it’s outstanding. If I’m drinking bubbly on someone else’s dime, I think i would choose something farther up the sparkling wine food chain. But if I’m paying, this will do nicely.

2007 MacMurray Ranch Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir – $18

Each time I’ve lunched at Biaggi’s – one of my favorite lunch spots – I’ve enjoyed a glass or two of the Fred MacMurray Pinot Noir. The “Sonoma Coast” label is their sub-$20 version of the $35 “Russian River Valley” label, which is a bit more refined and soft, if that’s what you’re into.

Unlike the translucent and Kool Aid-ish Pinots from Burgundy, this wine is bold, burly and intense! First of all, it’s dark opaque red – almost black! Black cherry and raspberry on the nose and black pepper, spicy vanilla and cola in your mouth. A long chewy mouth-coating woody finish has plenty of acidity to go with beef stew, grilled chicken, turkey or bacon.

2007 Byron Santa Maria Valley Pinot Noir – $20

Estate bottled Pinot for $20 out of California’s Santa Maria Valley!

Winemaker Jonathan Nagy knows that Pinot Noir is a touchy grape that needs to be handled delicately in order to preserve the fragile essence of its fruit. What I thought was cool about Byron – they’ve designed their environmentally-sensitive winery from the top down, utilizing gravity rather than pumps throughout the winemaking process. They use old-world natural techniques to gently move the grapes, juice and wine along, which allows them to produce wines that are balanced, elegant, pure and true.

Their 2007 Pinot hit me with smoke ,earth and rose petals on the nose and more smoke and cherry cola on the palate. It has a nice smooth, silky and smoky finish.

Drink with salmon, pork chops, grilled chicken or a Smoke Daddy’s pulled pork sandwich.

2007 X Winery Truchard Pinot Noir – $18

Like a walk through the forest hand-in-hand with  Megan  Fox, only she’s wearing a bikini made of wild berries. Smells awesome – you detect wild strawberries, raspberries and cranberries along with cedar from the walking path. You don’t know where to start – sniff, taste, explore – either one will get you into trouble with that dude who played David on 90210.

So take a sip – nice velvety texture with a good balance – acid but not too much acid, making it great with prime rib, filet mignon or even just Arby’s.

Not only from the Carneros region – which is considered by some to be the sweet spot of Napa and Sonoma Valleys – but specifically from the Truchard Vineyard, which is well-known for producing some of Napa’s best grapes. And just like Megan, this one’s delish and just a little dirty.

2008 Cono Sur Pinot Noir – $8

Cono Sur was born around the oldest Chilean Pinot Noir vineyards. For years they have promoted organic wine production methods since it benefits everyone from the consumer to the vineyard worker to the environment.

This wine is a rich ruby color with a nose that takes you for a walk through a cherry orchard. It’s light and breezy, soft and approachable, smooth and balanced.

It tastes like you’re nibbling on the bushels of fresh black cherries while you browse at your local fruit stand or farmer’s market, then finishes with a taste of toast that you reminds you of your Sunday morning scrambled egg breakfast. Awesome alone, or have with Chilean Sea Bass. Or turkey bacon if you’re eating that breakfast!

Next Page »